Michael Weatherly Felt It Was Weird No One Noticed How Attractive Emily Wickersham Was in ‘NCIS’
NCIS welcomed several new actors into Mark Harmon’s team of special agents over the years. After Season 11, Michael Weatherly joked that the show overlooked one new co-star’s attractiveness, which complicated things on set.
How Michael Weatherly felt about Emily Wickersham being cast in ‘NCIS’
When Cote De Pablo first left the show, it left a wide absence that NCIS hoped to fill. The long-running procedural would cast Wickersham as agent Eleanor Bishop in season 11. At the time, she was well aware that a few might see her as an attempt to replace De Pablo’s Ziva David. This added to her nerves, but most NCIS fans warmly welcomed Wickersham.
“People were very attached to Ziva,” she told Watch (via New York Post). “I wasn’t replacing her, but it was scary to come into that. People are crazy about the show. [We] have such wonderful fans.”
Wickerhsam’s character was married in the television show. And Weatherly was asked in an interview with TV Line if this was a good thing. When De Pablo was still a part of the show, there was a lot of romantic tension between her character and Weatherly’s. With agent Bishop being married, the idea was that Weatherly wouldn’t have the same dynamic with Wickersham’s character.
But Weatherly felt Bishop’s relationship status didn’t really matter in that regard.
“And I don’t know how happily married she can possibly be; she’s always with us,” Weatherly said. “I would say one of the weirdest things about the whole season is that nobody seems to have noticed that she’s attractive. And I don’t mean Tony, I mean nobody. I think they were between a rock and a hard place bringing her in because they didn’t want her to be romantic in any way with anyone, yet they hired a beautiful woman. I think the producers and writers and actors, we’ve all been working to figure out, ‘How does the Bishop character work best?'”
How did Emily Wickersham end up on ‘NCIS’?
Wickersham already had a few credits to her name before doing NCIS. She recalled one of her first roles was on The Sopranos, which turned her into a fan of acting.
“After being on The Sopranos, I was totally hooked and just wanted to do more and more,” she once told The Chic Spy.
From there, Wickersham managed to get on NCIS through the traditional way.
“My manager and agents set me up for an audition for the role of Bishop. I auditioned, was called back, and then actually acted out some of the scenes with [Mark Harmon] and other cast members. I remember getting the call that I got the part; it was pretty incredible. Then it was a matter of keeping the job,” she said.
Why did Emily Wickersham leave ‘NCIS’?
Wickersham left NCIS in 2021. She delivered a post on her social media reflecting back on her journey in the series and complimenting the cast and crew.
“Hangin’ this hat and jacket up. What a great ride it’s been,” she posted according to Entertainment Weekly. “This cast, this crew, are top notch. I can’t say enough kind words about this group that I’ve had the pleasure of working with for close to 8 years now and 172 episodes later.”
She also expressed her gratitude for being on the show, and it seemed that she decided to leave the show on her own.
“This business is finicky and weird, and consistency is a rarity. I’ve been lucky enough to be a part of a show where I got to show up and act and laugh and learn with wonderful people,” Wickersham continued. “A moment in time I surely won’t forget. Thank you, CBS and NCIS, for including me in a part of television history. Time goes fast. Eat it up but chew slowly.”
